The exemplary embodiment relates to the linguistic processing arts. It finds particular application in conjunction with troubleshooting of faults with electromechanical devices by searching a structured knowledge base, such as a manual, and enhancing the search results by querying the electromechanical device in which the fault has been observed, and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that it is also amenable to other like applications.
Many of the devices used today, both within the workplace and outside it, are highly complex. Such devices include electromechanical devices, such as computing devices, such as personal computers, image reproduction devices, such as printers and photocopiers, vehicles, and audio and visual equipment, such as cameras, video recorders, cell phones, dictation devices, music systems, and the like. As computing power has increased, so the functionality of these devices has also increased. The added functionality is wasted, however, if users do not know how to use or maintain the device or are unable to locate the necessary information to do so.
When a customer observes a problem with an electromechanical device, it is advantageous for the customer to determine how to repair the device without requiring a visit from a service engineer. The customer may therefore try to troubleshoot the machine problem, for example, by following instructions on the machine, by searching for solutions in online resources, or by contacting the manufacturer's help line (e.g., by phone or email). The troubleshooting process generally requires the user to articulate the symptoms of the problem so that the likely solutions can be retrieved from the resource. This is often difficult, since the user may be unfamiliar with the terminology used in the resource provided. As a consequence, where multiple devices are available, the user may abandon the faulty device and find another, leaving the problem for the next user to solve. This is particularly true when the problem is a non-fatal compromise of performance and it is not readily searchable. Here the user is faced with identifying the appropriate {symptom, cause, solution} triplet from a large set of problems identified by the search engine without much assistance in the process. This leads to user frustration and abandonment of the troubleshooting process, resulting in an expensive service visit for remediation and a period in which the device is performing suboptimally. An efficient, live, computationally mediated assistance is thus a more satisfactory answer to the customer's problem.